President Donald Trump renamed Lake Ontario to Lake America in a controversial move last month

The chief executive of a Michigan bank has lost her job after facing backlash for a social media photo of her family in sweatshirts that read “Lake America,” referencing Donald Trump’s relabeling of Lake Ontario.

Jane Smith from Family First Credit Union recently went viral after sharing the photo of her and three relatives wearing navy blue crewnecks with the words “Lake America” scrawled in white. The picture was snapped as her family left on September 11 for a 10-day trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia, but Smith says the sweatshirts were edited onto their bodies using AI.

“We weren’t trying to make a political statement,” Smith told Michigan outlet WJRT. “However, we were kind of poking fun at the fact that one of the Great Lakes’ names were getting changed.”

Family First Credit Union announced Wednesday that Smith was no longer with the company and that Jason Acosta, the chief operations officer, would serve as interim CEO.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    200·
    2 days ago

    These boomer’s brains have been fundamentally broken by the internet…

    Smith said that her family took the photo and then put it through ChatGPT to add the “Lake America” sweatshirts. “We never had actual sweatshirts. We never wore sweatshirts,” she told WJRT.

    "I understand if I was someone in Halifax and I thought a poor group of people walked in wearing those sweatshirts, it is highly offensive and I would understand why they would be so angry,” Smith reflected.

    They legitimately think that the Internet isn’t real.

    If they understand that the actual sweatshirts would piss people off, then the only reason they think it’s ok to do it with AI, is they don’t want the real life consequences of everyone knowing they support trump.

    Like “the picture is AI” only works as an excuse, if you’re not the one who added it with AI…

    The only thing this excuse proves, is they really support him and likely have even more extremists views they’re hiding.

    I’ve noticed this with other right wingers too, they see trump and his admin “trolling” in real life, and think it’s acceptable for them to do it. They never understand that “just a prank bro” hasn’t worked in over a decade, and that when/if they say it, no one gives a fuck.

    Whether or not it’s a joke, doesn’t matter.

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      2 days ago

      If edited pictures of sweatshirts posted online aren’t real, then neither are death threats made online.

    • DarkFuture@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      These boomer’s brains have been fundamentally broken by the internet…

      It started with AM radio and moved on to cable television. The internet was just the coup de grâce.

      Source: Watched it happen to my dad.